


Getting Help

by A Crimson Phoenix (cw151)



Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Leo kicks ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-19 02:11:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13694697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cw151/pseuds/A%20Crimson%20Phoenix
Summary: Instead of leaving the house with her phone, Leo finds Karen after her mother and Zach are kidnapped.Almost as soon as she meets her, Leo becomes Kastle shipper #1, obviously.





	1. Chapter 1

Leo threw herself into her desk chair and crossed her arms. She couldn’t believe that the kind and funny man that she’d come to know as Pete was really a dangerous criminal named Frank Castle. Pete had always been so nice to them and helped them out so many times. If he really did all those bad things the media said he did, why would he have visited them again and again just to do nice things for them?

 

She chewed on her bottom lip. Maybe the media had it wrong. She’d learnt in school that even the media could be wrong sometimes, and she’d also seen it herself after her father’s death. The media had called her dad a traitor, although he had actually tried to uncover something very wrong that the US army was doing in Afghanistan. As most media were saying bad things about her dad, only a few of them, mostly smaller websites, were saying that some of the information wasn’t quite adding up and that there must have been more to the story. So Leo knew she needed more information.

 

She uncrossed her arms and opened her laptop in front of her. Then she went to Google, typed “Frank Castle” into the search bar, and barely a second later, she was faced with several million hits. A lot of them, including Wikipedia, were calling Frank Castle a terrorist and listed the many bad things he’d done. Apparently there had been a court battle about a year earlier where he’d admitted to all of his crimes and was sent to prison, but he’d then broken out of that right the next day. Leo kept scrolling, and came across an article that was called “What is it, to be a hero?” in the New York Bulletin. When she clicked on it, it turned out to be a profile of Frank Castle, written by a woman named Karen Page. The profile was much longer than the other articles, so Leo settled her arms on to the desk to read it.

 

According to the article, Frank had been a soldier who had been sent to other countries to fight several times. He was a really good soldier, too, because he even got medals for it. Frank’s family had been killed when a police operation had gone wrong, and Frank himself had only barely survived. The DA and the police were trying to cover everything up, and even tried to have Frank killed when he was in hospital.  So when the police and the DA wouldn’t do anything to help get Frank justice, he took matters into his own hands and killed everyone involved in his family’s death.

 

Leo swallowed. She could understand Frank a little bit. When her dad had died, she sometimes wished that the people who killed him and who told lies about him would get killed, too. She knew that thinking like that was a bad thing to do, but she couldn’t help it. Her dad had been one of the best people in the world and he was dead just because he had done the right thing.

 

When she looked at the linked articles at the bottom of the page, she noticed that they were all written by the same woman, Karen Page. There was even a new article that was less than 24 hours old about an explosion in a hotel she’d heard about on TV earlier, and it said that Frank had not caused it, but that he had tried to protect Karen and everybody else there by taking out the actual terrorist, Lewis Wilson. Both from the profile of Frank Castle and the article on the hotel incident, it looked like Karen Page knew much more than some of the other journalists; at least, she seemed to know more sides to stories with Frank.

 

Her mother’s voice pulled Leo from her focus.

“Leo! Come down and get started on your homework, please! We’re going to eat in about an hour.”

“Coming,” Leo yelled back and then closed the laptop with a sigh.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Leo’s heart was racing as she cowered in the darkness of her wardrobe. As soon as she’d heard her mother’s screams downstairs, she’d run and hidden herself. It was quiet for a few minutes by now, and a few seconds ago, she’d heard the front door fall shut. Leo waited for another few minutes, all the while carefully listening, but it seemed that those police men – or whatever they were, something hadn’t felt right about them – were gone, and with them, Zach and her mom.

 

Leo slowly pushed the wardrobe door open and peeked through her window down on the empty street. Nothing but the usual sight of their neighbors’ cars. She took a deep breath and looked around her room. What if the men came back for her? She had to get help. But from who? If it was really the police who’d taken her mother and her brother, she couldn’t trust them. And if it wasn’t, whoever was after them was probably trying to find her, too. In any case, she probably didn’t have very much time.

 

Her eyes fell on to the laptop on her desk and an idea shot through her head. Maybe a journalist could help her. From what she knew, journalists often dealt with sensitive information, and had to deal with threats from both bad guys and the government. She opened the laptop and was faced with the profile of Frank Castle once more. Karen Page. She clearly knew a lot about Frank Castle, so maybe she could help.

 

Out of habit, Leo’s hand reached for her phone next to her laptop on the desk, but then she paused. She’d read somewhere that the police could track mobile phones even when they were off. So she pulled her hand back, and instead took a small piece of paper on which she wrote the directions to the Bulletin office. Then she got the small wallet with her pocket money, and quietly left the house via the bathroom window, just to be safe.

 

 

 

About an hour later, Leo got off the bus in front of the Bulletin offices. She swallowed as she stared up the building, and rubbed her arms. In her haste, she’d forgotten to take a coat before she left, and it was freezing.

 

The receptionist looked her up and down when Leo approached the front desk.

“I – I’m looking for Karen Page, please?” Leo said nervously.

“And your name is?” the receptionist replied in a bored tone as she picked up the phone.

“Leo,” Leo replied, deciding to leave her last name out of it, just in case.

“Just Leo?” the receptionist said as she raised her eyebrows. Leo nodded.

The receptionist punched a few numbers on the phone, and a second later, she said “Hi Karen, it’s Jenna from reception. There’s a girl here to see you, probably around 12 or 13 years old, says her name is Leo.”

Leo bit the inside of her cheek as Jenna was waiting for a reply.

“Ok, I’ll send her up,” Jenna said. She hung up the phone and turned to Leo.

“Elevator’s over there. Third floor, down the hallway, fourth door on the right,” she said.

Leo nodded with wide eyes.

“Ok, thank you,” she replied.

 

When she stepped out of the elevator on the third floor, a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes walked towards her.

“Are you Leo?” she asked with a gentle smile.

Leo nodded and noticed that there were two cuts on the woman’s forehead.

“Nice to meet you, Leo. My name is Karen,” she woman replied and held a hand out that Leo shook hesitantly.

“Jesus, your hands feel like ice. Where’s your coat?” Karen exclaimed.

Leo didn’t quite know what to say, but Karen seemed to understand anyway.

“Come on, let’s get you warmed up.”


	3. Chapter 3

A little while later, Leo was settled on a small couch in Karen’s office with a cup of tea in her hands and a blanket over her shoulders. The space was quite cluttered – there were filing boxes and stacks of paper everywhere, along with countless post-its.

Karen settled on to the couch next to Leo.

 

“So, Leo,” she said kindly. “Your last name wouldn’t happen to be Lieberman, would it?”

At that, Leo fixed her with an alarmed look. “How do you know that?” she asked concernedly.

Karen smiled gently.

“I’m a journalist. I’m good at recalling information and making connections. A few weeks ago, I looked up some information on your father, and it said that he had a daughter named Leo,” she said patiently.

Leo looked down at the cup of tea in her hands to fight back tears that suddenly threatened to fall.

Karen rubbed Leo’s shoulder.

“Hey, it’s alright, ok? You’re safe here, I promise you that.”

Leo exhaled deeply. “They took my brother and Zach. They looked like police but there was something weird about them. I don’t know where they took him. I think they know Frank Castle has been visiting us,” she said, her voice trembling lightly.

Karen frowned. “When was this?” she asked.

“About an hour ago,” Leo swallowed.

“Have you talked to anyone else about this? The police? A neighbor maybe?” Karen asked.

“No, I didn’t know who to trust. But you wrote a lot of stuff about Frank Castle and you seemed to know more about him than other journalists so I thought…” Leo trailed off and then fixed Karen with a pleading look. “You have to help me, please. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose mom and Zach, too.”

Karen’s expression became sympathetic, and she hugged Leo with one arm.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help you, I promise,” she said. “And I can also tell you that Frank will do whatever he can to keep your mother and your brother safe, ok?”

Leo nodded hesitantly.

“Let me figure out what’s going on,” Karen said as she stood up. “You drink your tea. Are you hungry?”

“A little bit. We were supposed to have lunch when those men came,” Leo said sheepishly.

Karen walked over to her bag and pulled out a sandwich.

“Here you go, have this. I’m going to make a phone call, alright?” She handed the sandwich to Leo, and then walked over to the window and slightly turned her back to the girl.

 

She dialed the number that Frank had called her on before he’d rescued her in the hotel. After a few rings, she heard his gruff voice.

“Karen? Something wrong?”

“Kind of. I have a young visitor by the name of Leo here,” Karen said as she threw a small smile at Leo who was nibbling away at the sandwich.

The response was a relieved sigh. “Leo’s with Karen,” she heard Frank say to someone else in the room.

“She alright? Those bastards took her mother and brother,” Frank said angrily.

“Yeah, I heard. She’s fine. She knew that she couldn’t go to the police so she came to me because I’ve written so much about you,” Karen summarized quickly.

She heard Frank converse with someone else in the background. Then he talked into the phone again.

“’kay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Take her to Astoria Park. There’s a pool that Leo knows. David’s going to meet you there. Don’t tell her that, though, ‘right? Just in case there’s a change of plans,” he said.

Karen swallowed. “Ok, we’ll head over there right away,” she said.

“’kay,” Frank confirmed. “Take your gun, ok?”

Karen hummed in assent.

“Ah, you ok, after, you know, yesterday?” she asked quietly. She bit her lip and looked out on the street.

Frank paused for a moment.

“Yeah,” he finally replied.

Karen nodded to herself and folded an arm across her middle.

“Am I right to assume that your mission is about to come to an end?” she asked as she tried to keep her voice from shaking.

“Yeah,” Frank said quietly.

“Take care of yourself, ok?” she asked. “This may be an end, but it doesn’t have to be your end.”

Frank hummed noncommittally.

“Ok, then, bye,” Karen said with a sigh.

“Bye,” Frank repeated. “And, uh, thanks.”

 

Karen needed a moment to compose herself. This was it then. She just prayed that Frank would get out of this whole disaster alive so that she could see him again. Her stomach felt queasy, and so she quickly turned to Leo to distract herself.

“So, ah, we’ve got to go to the Astoria Park. Apparently there’s a pool that you know?” she said as she walked back to the couch.

“Yeah,” Leo said. “We used to go there a lot when we were little.”

“Ok, then let’s go. Take the blanket,” Karen said as she went to get her purse.

“Was that Frank?” Leo asked.

Karen paused. “Yeah,” she said.

“Is he ok?” Leo asked again.

“Yeah, I think so,” Karen replied as she dug through her purse to check that she had everything.

Leo got up. “Is Frank your friend?”

Karen looked over to her and ran a hand through her hair.

“Yes. Yes, he is.” She swallowed. “He’s going to keep us and your family safe, ok? I know that. Come on, we have to go now.”

Leo bit her lip, but then she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and followed Karen to the door.


	4. Chapter 4

About 45 minutes later Karen parked her car outside of Astoria Park, and she and Leo walked over to the pool area.

Karen made them stand in the shadows behind a large column while they were waiting. About ten minutes later, they suddenly heard a voice calling out for Leo.

Leo stared at Karen with wide eyes.

“That’s my dad,” she said incredulously.

Karen nodded. “Yes, it is.”

“But, that’s impossible,” Leo said in confusion.

Karen peeked around the column.

“No, it’s really him. Look for yourself,” she said with a smile.

Leo hesitantly peeped around the column herself, and then she slowly started to walk towards the man calling for her.

Karen leisurely followed Leo to give the two some space. As she watched their tearful reunion, she exhaled slowly. She just hoped that wherever Frank was right now, that he would finally be able to finish that war that he’d been raging for almost one and a half years now, and that he would be able to start a new life afterwards. He truly deserved it.

 

Finally, David looked up.

“Hi, uh, I’m David. David Lieberman,” he said and held out his hand. Leo was still wrapped around his middle and did not seem to have any intention of letting him go.

Karen smiled and shook his hand.

“I read a lot about you. I’m Karen Page,” she replied.

“I know,” David replied with an inscrutable expression on his face. “Thank you for keeping my little girl safe.”

“You’re welcome. But I didn’t have to do much,” Karen said as she ruffled Leo’s hair. “Leo here did most of the work by coming to me.”

“Yep, that’s my girl,” David said as he hugged his daughter once more.

 

A few hours later, Leo and David were sitting in the van waiting for Frank.

“So, are Karen and Frank friends?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” David replied as he scanned their surroundings.

“I think Karen really likes him,” Leo added.

“Well, he really likes her too, I think. He took a bullet for her,” David said off-handedly.

“Really?” Leo’s eyes were as large as saucers.

David looked at her and only just seemed to realize what he’d said.

 

“Uh, yeah. Yesterday. There was this crazy guy who tried to hurt her,” he said slowly.

“Lewis Wilson? The guy who tried to blow up the hotel?” Leo asked.

“Yeah,” David replied and narrowed his eyes. “How’d you know about that?”

Leo shrugged. “Google,” she said.

David raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. Anyway. Karen’s important to Frank,” he said as he looked back at the street outside.

“Do you think they’re dating?” Leo asked pensively.

“Honestly, I have no idea what they are. I don’t think they even know it themselves,” David asked.

Leo looked out on to the river.

“If they’re not dating, I think they should. I think they’d be great together,” Leo said firmly. 


	5. Chapter 5

It was over. It was _finally_ over.

 

Frank couldn’t quite believe it as he sat at the dining table in the Lieberman’s house on a Sunday afternoon. They had just finished lunch and were now making conversation over their empty dessert plates.

 

Leo was particularly interested in Karen and kept asking her questions, from Karen’s work about her previous life in NYC and her childhood in Vermont.

 

Karen answered all of Leo’s question patiently, and returned some of the questions herself, asking about Leo’s hobbies and favorite school subjects and her friends.

 

At some point, Karen excused herself to go the bathroom, and as soon as she was gone, Leo fixed Frank with an amused look, her eyebrows raised.

 

“Does Karen know that you have a crush on her?” she asked with a giggle.

 

Frank scowled.   
  
“Wha’?” he asked, perplexed.

 

“Yeah, you’re totally in love with her,” Zach agreed as he made kissing noises.

 

Frank shook his head.

 

“Look at those two,” he mumbled under his breath. “Think you both had too much sugar,” he said a bit louder.

 

“Nu-uh, but we do have eyes in our heads,” Leo added joyfully. “And you totally have googly eyes for Karen.”

 

Sarah was biting her lip to keep a semblance of a straight face, but David’s grin was just as wide as his children’s.

 

“You know, back in my day, this would have been a classic case for ‘Frank and Karen, sittin’ on a tree, k-i-s-s-‘” he started, and Leo and Zach joined him for the end. “-i-n-g!”

 

“Yeah, you really enjoying yourselves, are ya?” Frank made a dismissive gesture, but he couldn’t stop his cheeks and the tips of his ears from turning a light shade of pink.

 

“Ha! More evidence!” Sarah finally joined in too as she pointed at his face, and the entire Lieberman family broke into laughter.

 

“Alright, alright,” Frank said with an irked expression as he started to collect the dessert plates from all over the table. Zach continued to make kissing noises, while Leo and David overacted a couple looking adoringly at each other.

 

In that moment, Karen returned from the bathroom.

 

“Oh wow, what’d I miss?” she asked as she was looking at the merry scene in front of her in surprise.

 

“Nothin’. Jus’ the Liebermans bein’ their normal annoyin’ selves,” Frank said curtly as he got up with the stack of dessert plates.

 

“Let me help you with that,” Karen said and followed him into the kitchen. As they were loading the dishwasher, they could hear kissing and cooing noises, amongst warning hisses from Sara.

 

Karen looked at Frank questioningly.

“Yeah, they think they’re smart,” Frank said with a roll of his eye.

“Well, maybe we should turn the tables then,” Karen said with a wink.

She threw a quick glance at the Liebermans and then pulled Frank into a passionate kiss that left both of them breathless.

The room had become completely quiet as the entire Lieberman family stared at them. Karen reached for Frank’s hand and walked back to the dining table with him.

The Liebermans were throwing each other confused glances when Karen and Frank sat back down.

Leo cleared her throat.

“Are you and Frank dating?” she asked point-blank, earning her a warning look from both of her parents.

“Ah, yeah, for a while now. Why?” Karen replied with an angelic expression. Her hand squeezed Frank’s under the table. “More water, anyone?”

 


End file.
